Moving Will Be a Delicate Operation for Hospital : Oxnard: The $110-million relocation of St. John’s Regional Medical Center is called ‘a logistical nightmare.’ A trial run is planned Friday.

Sister Marie-Cherie Thibodeaux started waking up in the middle of the night several months ago, worrying about the last-minute details of moving an entire hospital and all its patients to a new site in Oxnard.

“It’s a logistical nightmare,” she said.

Thibodeaux, facilities and planning director for St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, was hired three years ago to oversee the $110-million relocation of the 365,000-square-foot hospital by Sept. 19.

She has good days when things run smoothly and bad days when she hits a snag.

“Some days, I think, ‘Oh my God,’ and I think, ‘No it’s going to work,’ ” Thibodeaux said. “We have good people here . . . but it’s a lot of little things that need to be done.

“It’s very tedious,” she said.

But, lying in bed at night, she finds solace in the hope that “things will fall into place.”

The hospital’s scheduled grand opening Sept. 19 will come after nearly five years of planning. Starting at 9 a.m. that day, the hospital will face its most important task--moving about 150 patients in various states of health from its F Street site to a new building two miles away on Rose Avenue in Oxnard.

Hospital officials estimate it will take nine hours for a caravan of seven ambulances to transport the patients on a predesignated 11-minute route, with the help of Gold Coast Ambulance and the Oxnard Police Department.

To ensure that the patients are moved safely and quickly, two police officers will patrol the area on motorcycles and five police cadets will direct traffic, Sgt. George Pultz said.

“When they pull up to these intersections, we’ll be able to stop traffic and wave them through,” he said.

But transporting patients is just one component of the complex plan that also involves moving sensitive surgical equipment, blood and medicine, hospital beds, computers, filing cabinets, and office supplies.

Thibodeaux said the process has gone along pretty smoothly, although some changes have had to be made along the way to give more room to certain departments, or to put different offices next to each other.

“Some things always slip through the cracks,” she said. “Things just don’t get built like they’re supposed to.”

For example, Thibodeaux was asked to redesign all of the interior signs to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires the letters to stick out from the wall and also to be printed in Braille. Thibodeaux said she walked the halls to make sure the signs point in the right direction.

Gold Coast, in preparation for the big day, purchased a critical care mobile transport unit that can take eight patients at one time and will also be on hand for disasters in the future. It is most likely the only one of its kind to be licensed by the California Highway Patrol, CHP spokesman Sam Haynes said.

On Friday, Gold Coast and the hospital will conduct a trial run, moving volunteers as patients.

“It’s just to get an idea for the time element that’s going to be involved,” said Ken Cook, Gold Coast president.

Cook said his company will use seven of its eight ambulances during the move, borrowing two more for backup in case an emergency occurs somewhere else.

St. John’s personnel and security officials moved their offices into the new five-floor building Monday, readying for the four-hour employee orientation sessions that will begin today.

Meanwhile, workers are still putting the finishing touches on the new medical center, unpacking furniture, installing ceiling tiles and unloading boxes of equipment.

Allied Hospital Services Inc. of Vienna, Va., has been hired to move the thousands of pieces of equipment over a four-week period, President Nat Rhodes said. On Aug. 14, departments will begin moving supplies and equipment that is not needed for daily operations.

Allied, whose officials say is the only company in the country to specialize in hospital moves, will use a tractor-trailer, two or three 24-foot trucks, and a “hot truck” to take delicate items such as blood, Rhodes said.

“It’s a very complex, complicated job,” he said.

St. John’s, one of 13 hospitals owned by the San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West, has been in Oxnard for 80 years. The hospital started out in a six-room structure where the hospital’s physical rehabilitation center now stands on F Street, and the main building was added 40 years ago.

As modern technology was developed and the number of patients grew, the hospital outgrew its facility. “We’re just outdated,” Thibodeaux said. “That’s why we needed a brand-new place. . . . The building is old. It’s been built in different sections. We’ve basically run out of space.”